Theocratic Treachery

[Emproph]

My intent for this thread is to keep it open for any items of interest that may shed light on how the religious right is spinning their attempts to promote a theocracy and undermine American Democracy.
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I’m in the process of dissecting the interview that spawned this article in another thread (FOF/Citizenlink) and haven’t gotten to this part yet but I thought this was important enough to post separately.

From the article:

Many Americans continue to believe the phrase "separation of church and state" is found in the U.S. Constitution...The phrase [is] from an 1802 letter President Jefferson wrote...

They link to the letter itself, but obfuscate (confuse) the fact that Thomas Jefferson quoted and described the first amendment as a "separation of Church and State."

From the letter they link to:

.., I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should "make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof," thus building a wall of separation between Church & State.

From Mel White’s Religion Gone Bad:

Fundamentalist Christians wish with all their hearts that Jefferson had never written those words, because they leave no wiggle room for those who oppose the separation of church and state or state and church on the shaky ground that our forefathers didn’t use those exact words in the constitution.

From the article again:

...it's accurate to say, as Dr. Dobson did, Jefferson felt the First Amendment protected the church from government interference -- not the opposite."

There’s plenty to comment on, but what I'm getting is that they’re attempting to devalue the meaning of the first amendment by equating it with the words used to describe it.

The tactic itself isn’t surprising, but it’s usually reserved for the ‘tried and true’ anti-gay or anti-whatever rhetoric. Am I missing something here or do you think my assessment is accurate?

I’m just having trouble believing they’re trying to confuse their own base so openly and obviously. Is there any other way to interpret this?